Aaaaannnnndddddd we’re off to the races. New Phyrexia is out, the war is over, and the innovation has begun. This set has left us with a whole bunch of goodies just waiting to hit the tables and wreck some face. Standard PTQ season is upon us and this format could certainly use a change in scenery. Caw-go has been dominating the tables for months now and a more widespread diversity of decks at the top tables would certainly be appreciated.

Before the king is taken off his throne though, some sort of pointy object must be used to slowly prod him off of it; that’s where I come in…but NOT WITH A SWORD!

However, with all of the cool new deck ideas that will be spurred by the release of New Phyrexia, a new and revamped version of an old deck remains one of the best ways to get to the top and stay there…

RUG

The deck that began its dominance last year in San Juan is back and it’s better than ever, it can now kill you on turn four or… kill you later than turn four! With New Phyrexia comes an infinite combo that can become quite a nuisance; the [card]Deceiver Exarch[/card]/[card]Splinter Twin[/card] combo. For those of you who are not familiar with this combo, here’s how it works.

1) [card]Splinter Twin[/card] is Enchanted to [card]Deceiver Exarch[/card]
2) Exarch is tapped and a copy is made
3) The copy uses its “When it comes into play, untap target permanent you control” ability to untap the original Exarch that is enchanted with [card]Splinter Twin[/card].
4) Repeat steps two and three as many times as desired.
5) Attack with an infinite amount of 1/4s, It’s like being poked with over 9000 different sticks until you eventually die, how fun!

There, a simple procedure on how to kill turn four, as Exarch has flash and can therefore be flashed in at the end of your opponent’s turn three. This frustrating new combo feels like the perfect fit in RUG, a deck that had a hard time dealing with early beats matchups like Mono Red and Boros. In order to fit this devastating combo into RUG, a few modifications had to be made, but the main idea of the deck remains the same. Here’s the new and improved RUG!

[deck title=Ridiculous Ultimate Greedyness!]
[Creatures]
2 Precursor Golem
3 Deceiver Exarch
4 Lotus Cobra
3 Inferno Titan
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
3 Splinter Twin
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Explore
4 Preordain
3 Lightning Bolt
4 Mana Leak
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Raging Ravine
3 Copperline Gorge
2 Halimar Depths
4 Island
3 Forest
2 Mountain
[/Land]
[/deck]

As you can see, including the combo meant removing the [card]Avenger of Zendikar[/card]s that most lists were running (I think an instant kill is slightly better, no?). In addition, there are no [card]Oracle of Mul Daya[/card] and only 3 [card]Lightning Bolt[/card]s, what a scandal!

However, the addition of the combo makes the aggro matchups much easier as they have little to no responses to this lethal combo (hooray for creatures that are out of [card]Lightning Bolt[/card] range!) While many people feel that the combo pieces on their own are not very useful, both pieces can be all stars without their “significant other”. When stranded, Exarch does a good wall impression that can also tap down creatures and save lethal damage from getting through.

[card]Splinter Twin[/card], however, is much more resourceful. Creating copies of any of the 3 non-Exarch creatures played in the deck can be lights out, here’s why:

[card]Lotus Cobra[/card]: having multiple [card]Lotus Cobra[/card]s on the table can allow for insane amounts of mana and crazy outcomes early on in games!

[card]Precursor Golem[/card]: Being able to create an instant army with one [card]Precursor Golem[/card] is already pretty cool; now imagine it with more free Golems. With an enchanted [card]Precursor Golem[/card], one can create a hasted Golem that dies at the end of a turn as well as two additional 3/3s that stay on the board, talk about value!

[card]Inferno Titan[/card]: Doesn’t the idea of having a Titan whose activated ability resolves twice in one turn and can attack sound amazing? With Twin and Inferno, you have a ridiculous force that can deal 12 damage in a single turn! In the words of Tristan Taylor in Yu-gi-oh, the Abridged Series “Holy **** on a **** sandwhich with **** on top, and a side helping of ****!” Hopefully the reference is understood (I’m looking at you Gaudrault)

With a mainboard that seems so good against so many different decks, is a sideboard even necessary? Actually, yes it is, and here’s one!

[cardlist title=Sideboard]
2 Acidic Slime
4 Pyroclasm
3 Obstinate Baloth
3 Flashfreeze
1 Lightning Bolt
2 Natures Claim
[/cardlist]

This sideboard is pretty Standard and can help deal with many different undesirable matchups. Brian David Marshall once told me that the one of the main reasons he played Gerry Thompson’s tweaked Naya list at last year’s U.S. Nationals Qualifiers was because he provided a sideboard plan, so here’s one just for you (you can go ahead and play this, BDM, I won’t complain… really.)

Caw-Go

+ 2 [card]Acidic Slime[/card]
+ 1 [card]Natures Claim[/card]
-2 [card]Explore[/card]
-1 [card]Lightning Bolt[/card]

This matchup should already be favored for you as most of your cards are very good against their cards, but Bringing in [card]Acidic Slime[/card] helps remove those pesky Swords if they happen to stick. [card]Explore[/card] is amazing, but it’s slightly less optimal here, so they can be removed along with one [card]Lightning Bolt[/card].

Boros

+ 4 [card]Pyroclasm[/card]
+3 [card]Obstinate Baloth[/card]
+2 [card]Natures Claim[/card]
+1 [card]Lightning Bolt[/card]
-2 [card]Precursor Golem[/card]
-4 [card]Lotus Cobra[/card]
-4 [card]Mana Leak[/card]

In this matchup, you want to keep him off the early beats and eventually stabilize or kill him with the combo. [card]Mana Leak[/card] is not optimal in this matchup and can therefore be removed. Baloth keeps your life total comfortable, [card]Pyroclasm[/card] keeps the board nice and tidy, and [card]Natures Claim[/card] eliminates those pesky Swords! Golem just eat Bolt’s and get three for one’d way too often for it to be good in the matchup, and Cobra and [card]Pyroclasm[/card] are simply counterproductive.

Mono Red

+4 [card]Pyroclasm[/card]
+3 [card]Obstinate Baloth[/card]
+1 [card]Lightning Bolt[/card]
+2 [card]Flashfreeze[/card]
-4 [card]Lotus Cobra[/card]
-2 [card]Precursor Golem[/card]
-4 [card]Mana Leak[/card]

The boarding plan is similar in this matchup except for the [card]Natures Claim[/card]s become [card]Flashfreeze[/card]s as they are essentially a less mana-intensive Counterspell in this matchup!

Valakut

+3 [card]Flashfreeze[/card]
+2 [card]Acidic Slime[/card]
-3 [card]Lightning Bolt[/card]
-2 [card]Precursor Golem[/card]

Essentially, you want to stall them until you can land a big bomb/combo off and get there. You have enough counterspells to keep him off his game and to get there. He may be boarding [card]Nature’s Claim[/card] in to counteract your combo, so beware! Also, the concept of [card]Acidic Slime[/card] and [card]Splinter Twin[/card] seems cute.

Eldrazi Green

+3 [card]Flashfreeze[/card]
-2 [card]Precursor Golem[/card]
-1 [card]Lightning Bolt[/card]

This matchup feels a lot easier than Valakut as he doesn’t have spot removal to deal with your [card]Lotus Cobra[/card]s, which can allow you to blow him out quicker. He will have [card]Nature’s Claim[/card] in his sideboard for the combo, so keep countermagic open!

Mono White Artifacts

+2 [card]Natures Claim[/card]
+2 [card]Acidic Slime[/card]
+1 [card]Lightning Bolt[/card]
+4 [card]Pyroclasm[/card]
-4 [card]Jace, The Mind Sculptor[/card]
-4 [card]Mana Leak[/card]
-1 [card]Inferno Titan[/card]

This matchup will be very fast, either he’ll get the nuts and be able to get there or you’ll have the removal to blow him out of the water. He can’t really respond to the combo unless he has metalcraft active, so try to keep him off metalcraft if possible.

Pyro-Twin

+2 [card]Acidic Slime[/card]
+2 [card]Nature’s Claim[/card]
+1 [card]Flashfreeze[/card]
-2 [card]Precursor Golem[/card]
-3 [card]Lightning Bolt[/card]

We all know that this bad-boy is going to make it’s way to the top tables eventually, so might as well be prepared to see it. Bringing in any hate for the combo or the Ascension is ideal and can lead to winning more games. A well-protected [card]Acidic Slime[/card]/[card]Splinter Twin[/card] is basically an automatic win for you, do anything you can to keep him off his combo! Essentially, both of you want that combo out as soon as possible, so hurry up!

Well that concludes the boarding plan; I believe I covered all the major matchups that will be seen in this new standard. I hope some of you will give the deck a try and get there in PTQs, I know you can do it!

Until next time, keep combo-ing off!

Jake “Professor M” Meszaros

P.S. This is an early version, so by the time the article has been published, I may have changed things. If you want the updates, give me a should out on twitter ( @TheProfessor_M .)
P.P.S. I apologize for the shameless plug… sort of